Thousand Strike
by Hector Flores
Summary: Kazuto finds out that his family is not his family at all, finding refuge in a game he learns what friendship, family and even forgiveness is. He even finds love in the most unusual place.
1. Chapter 1

This is a Sword Art Online Fanfiction only.

In my life, I had many deceptions and some of them had changed how I lived my life. The biggest one had to deal with the people I called my family. For years I came to think of the people I lived with to be my family, even felt sad at the passing of the man I once thought to be my father.

I guess a bit of an explanation is involved, otherwise, you will not understand where I am coming from. My name is Kazuto and for many years I thought that my last name was Kirigaya, much like my sister Suguha.

My family is very strict and demands much from us, this caused us to focus on our studies and the only extracurricular activity we had growing up was attending a local kendo dojo owned by my grandfather. For some reason grandpa always gave me the impression he hated my guts.

He was always more strict with me, and would take any chance to punish me for the slightest of errors, sometimes even beat me up with the shinai I often used.

It was when I was nine that I finally had enough, and I did something just to stick it to the man who's joy, according to what I saw, was to beat me up half to death. I first told him exactly where in his body he could sheath his shinai in, I believe the words corn and hole were mentioned.

The second was I promised never to practice Kendo for as long as I lived, and since I had to have a martial art I picked one just to upset my abusive grandfather. I decided to pick jujutsu. I first did it, since I always heard stories that he picked Kendo since he failed at this martial arts style.

I did not fail like he did, I excelled and even won the national competition on my first try, the kicker was that it was a mixed martial arts competition, so in order to win I had to fight members of my grandfather's dojo, even my own sister.

I beat every single member of his dojo and won the competition outright that is when I learned the first deception, he told me he wished that his daughter had never adopted me in the first place.

As this was an embarrassment for her father, I was taken out of my dojo, and forbidden from ever practicing martial arts again. That is when I decided since I already knew everything I needed to learn to be a black belt in both of them, I would concentrate on electronics, most specifically computers.

I had to find out if the thing the old man told was true if indeed I was not really a member of his family like he said. I began going around the city, and I would pick up broken or abandoned computers. I dissembled them and from spare parts I built my own computer.

I learned everything I could about computer language and my final self-imposed test was to hack the government's family registration records. If I wanted the truth about my life it would be there.

There is a saying that sometimes the answers we want most, are the ones we always regret obtaining. I learned that indeed I was not a member of the Kirigaya family at all. I was adopted after my mother died in a car accident, the records state that I got the name Kazuto as her final wish before she died.

I spent every second doing odd jobs for different computer research companies, one of the people I work for most was the man I admired most in the world, he was a scientist by the name of Akihiko Kayaba. The ideas for his full immersion virtual reality system were phenomenal.

I did mostly organizing data and was paid well enough, my family pretty much left me to my own and with grandpa living with us at the time it was not hard to see the reason for it. I think Grandpa Genji actually forgot my name since he often called me either traitor or leech these days.

As I entered high school, I truly began to feel no longer welcomed in my supposed family home. I was an honor student every single year and the fact that I got better scores than my sister I guess rubbed them the wrong way. That coupled with the way grandpa talked about me.

Let's just say that I felt like if I was abducted by aliens and never returned they would not shed a single tear about it, or worse grandpa would make a shrine to the aliens thanking them for taking me away.

On my eleventh birthday I registered to play the first full dive MMO game on the new gaming platform, a real virtual reality game console that would allow the player to feel, taste, smell and experience everything the virtual world was as if it was real. The Nerve Gear was finished and now I wanted to play the Beta of the first real game on it, Sword Art Online.

I was one of the lucky players that got to be a Beta tester for this monumental game, and in this game, I felt alive and happy than I did back in the supposed real world. I even made friends with some really fun guys and even joined a guild.

The time I spent in the world of that flying castle was the best therapy I could ask for, why was it therapy you ask? In the castle Aincrad the place the game took place I was one of the most feared bounty hunters of the most feared guild during the Beta, my friend called it something just for laughs, he called the guild Laughing Coffins.

One year went by rather quickly and before long I was saying goodbye to my friends and I only knew their user names so the final day of the Beta I said goodbye to my friends, PoH, Xaxa, and Johnny.

I waited for the actual release of Sword Art Online, and thanks to me working in the company that developed it. I was given a bonus that year, a bonus I never expected. Usually, we got an end of year check as a salary bonus, but not me. I got a copy of Sword Art Online.

To be back in the world that I loved so much, it was a real blessing to me. I could go back and maybe play again with my old friends. I could spend time with people that as much as I knew really cared about me, unlike my adoptive family.

As I plugged in the Nerve Gear and the game loaded, I opened my eyes and I was on the entry plaza in the city of beginnings. I could not help but to feel happy about it. "I am finally home again."

I began to great the people in the city and didn't care that they were not players. I often did treat them as people and as such they treated me the same way. I wanted to go to the fields and fight some monsters to see how much the world had changed.

Just as I was near the exit to one of my favorite feels, I felt a person grab me from behind and that was when my martial arts training took over. I grabbed the hand and with a kick to the legs of my would-be aggressor I slammed him hard on the ground.

"Damn, that was a good throw. Had I not been in the city my HP would be nearly down to zero. Sorry if I spooked you, man. I just saw you walking and talking to the NPC and realized that you knew what you were doing. You are one of the guys who was a Beta aren't you?"

I looked at the guy, he had the look of a bandit down to the hairs on his chin. "Yea, I was a Beta but what is it to you?"

He put his hands up in a clear sign of surrender, "Hey, no need to be hostile. I was just going to ask you to teach me the basics. This is my first game on this thing, and since you clearly know what is what I wanted to ask you to teach me."

I knew just the field he needed to learn the basics. I was trying hard not to laugh as the boar basically kicked him in the family jewels. It was really funny to see since you can't feel that pain at all.

"Will you stop doing that? You can't feel it anyway." He stopped and laughed as he realized I was telling the truth.

"I guess you are right, but I can't hit that thing if it moves around so much." I picked up a pebble and looked at him. "As long as you do the initial movement for a skill, the system will always help you hit. Just watch and you should see what I mean."

I did the movement for a simple strike and just as the stone shined I let go and sure enough, the stone went flying and hit the boar's right ass cheek. He didn't like it so it came charge it at. I blocked it with my gauntlets.

"See just do the motion and just as you feel your weapon vibrate let go and let it fly." He didn't believe me but since he had no other choice he did as I asked and finally he used the curved sword skill reave.

His strike sliced the boar in half and it broke into a thousand pixels. He was really happy until after he saw the results. "Hey man why is the reward so low?"

I looked at him and smiled, "You won't get much fighting these boars, they are the same as slimes in other RPG games. Good targets for practice, though, no real danger with these things as long as you know what you are doing."

"I am a master blacksmith and using jujutsu. I don't need a weapon, I don't because as long as I can use my hands I am my own weapon. At worst, I can use my skills to disarm my enemy."

He looked downright impressed as I said that and began to pat me on my right shoulder. "That is something, My name is Klein. If you have time later I would like to introduce you to some of my friends, we had a guild in a previous game. We sure could use an expert blacksmith in our new guild. I welcome you with open arms."

"The name is Kirito, I am also known by the Betas as Thousand Striker." He began laughing and pulled me into a one arm hug.

"You got to be kidding, you are the most feared Bounty in this place? Now I have to have you join our guild. No way I am giving up till you join us if only to never be on your hit list."

I looked at the clock and realized I still had to make dinner. "Well I might join if your friends don't have a problem with me, but I really need to log out of here. I still got to make dinner."

That was when he finally looked at his own clock and began to freak out. "Darn I also need to log out, I ordered a pepperoni and mushroom pizza with a bottle of ginger ale."

I had to admit that did sound rather tasty, just as he called the menu he became rather pale. He quickly turned around and asked me a question I would always remember.

"Say Kirito is there an emergency log out function on this game? Cause there is no logout button anywhere on this menu." I looked at it and sure enough, there was a button missing.

"No, the nerve gear pretty much prevents us from moving, or even talking when we got the nerve gear on. It pretty much takes over all our sensory centers of our brain and prevents movement to prevent self-injuries."

"This is not a bug I can tell you this much if it was they would forcefully log everyone out, and repair it. To have a bug of this caliber would pretty much kill the nerve gear and this game."


	2. Chapter 2

This is a Sword Art Online Fanfiction only.

I looked at the large bell in the center of the town of beginning's and that was when I heard the large bell ring. Instantly we were taken from the field we were at and sent to the plaza.

"Forceful transport? You got to be kidding me." I looked at Klein and it was clear this was getting to him. I looked up to the ceiling and I began to see something red leaking from the upper floor.

"Klein not to add more fuel to the fire, look up. Something is happening." I kept looking up and began to see how more and more of the red liquid began to pour down, it almost reminded me of blood.

The blood like substance began to pool until it became the sort of faceless giant equivalent of what the GM was supposed to look like. That is when I knew something was not right in Aincrad.

"Welcome players to my world, I am Akihiko Kayaba and I made this world that you find yourselves in. There are a few things I need to explain so that you don't panic. You probably looked for the log out option in your menu, and found that it was missing."

"You probably think it's a bug, let me assure you that it is not a bug. There was never supposed to be a log out option in the final release of Sword Art Online. I also need to inform you that there is no longer a means to resurrect a player, as in life once your health ends so does your life."

People around us began to panic and I didn't like where this was going. "As you probably guessed it, once your hit points reach zero, in that instant the nerve gear will receive a signal and destroy that player's brain. You die in Aincrad, you die in the real world."

"Tragically I have told all major media networks and some people chose to ignore my warning, and so as of today two hundred players have died here in Aincrad and in the real world, all because someone tried to remove the nerve gear from these players heads."

That was when Klein truly according to what I saw began to lose it. "That is impossible, there is no way a gaming console can destroy a person's brain."

I had to put an end to this panic, this was not going to be good for anyone. "Actually the nerve gear transmits data into our brains using the same waves another household appliance uses to cook or heat our food. The nerve gear uses microwaves and can given a strong enough signal cook our brains."

"Before you even think that if we run out of juice we are dead, think back. 80% of the weight of the nerve gear it's the weight of the battery. We can have this thing on for weeks before it needs to be recharged."

Klein looked at me and I saw that he understood what I was trying to tell him. "But why would he do this? What is the point in making a game, and turning it into a death game? It makes no sense."

Almost like Kayaba was listening to us, he decided to continue his little speech just as Klein finished saying that. "You are probably wondering why would the creator of Sword Art Online and the nerve gear do this, it is quite simple. I wanted to create a world where all the players could experience the world in a real sense."

"My objection as of today has been achieved, now all you need to do is clear all one hundred floors, and when the game is cleared everyone who is still alive will be automatically logged out."

He stretched out one and at us as he hovered way up in the air. "As for your bodies, I would not worry. All your bodies have been moved to a medical facility, and they know now not to remove the nerve gear, and you will not run out of power. This should take care of most of your worries, so you will be free to focus on clearing the game."

"As a gift I have placed an item in your inventory." I looked at my inventory and found something strange that was not there, the item title said it was a mirror. The second I took it out and looked at myself in the mirror, there was a bright light and my avatar changed I was shocked to see that it looked exactly like I did in real life.

I was so shocked that I dropped the mirror and it shattered into a thousand pieces. "Kirito is that you?" I heard Klein asked me that question but the funny thing is he did look a bit younger than the way his avatar looked like, but he still had the entire look of a bandit.

"I guess the nerve gear scanned our faces, and got the dimensions of our real bodies from the calibration procedure. He changed our avatars to make us see that this life is also real."

Kayaba looked mighty pleased as I finished saying that, "This should make you feel that this life is indeed yours, and that death here also means death in the real world. With this ends the tutorial for Sword Art Online, and once again Welcome to my world."

I knew from my Beta days that resources would be finite, and if I was to have any chance to survive this situation. I needed to get the heck out of this city and move to better and more rewarding monster fields.

I hate to say it but the guy sort of grows on you, and the idea of leaving him when he barely knows the basics was not sitting well with me. If he was this green I would hate to imagine how inexperienced his friends are. They are probably having quite a fit, either from fear or panic attacks.

"Come on Klein, we can't sit here thinking philosophy. Don't you got a bunch of friends out in this plaza, we need to get them together and try to figure a way that we can teach them the basics, otherwise they are as good as dead. I know you don't want that to happen."

Klein looked rather surprised to hear me say that, he did something that was not what you call comfortable. The guy flat out hugged me. "Thanks a lot Kirito, for a minute I figured we would just slow you down and you would leave us to figure things out on our own. It's really nice to see you are such a considerate guy."

I began to look for people that looked like they were having a panic attack, "Yea, yea, all for one and one for all. Come on, you know these people we are looking for I got no clue what they even look like."

Several immediately recognized Klein and ran towards us as they told the others to come to where they were going. As I began to look at them, I was glad that I stayed with Klein. These guys didn't look like newbies, they were completely green, wet behind the ears.

"Klein we need to get going, we are going to the place I taught you the basics. Come on people, we are wasting daylight and we got a lot of things to go over."

I saw one with a rather shall we say french looking mustache walk towards Klein, "Klein why are you letting this brat tell us what to do. We are adults, he should do what we tell him and not the other way around."

I was cracking my knuckles by the time he finished saying that, "Well Klein it looks like you were wrong, your friends don't want to make it out of this death game at all. You stay and talk with them, I am going to the field where I taught you the basics."

I began walking, "If you manage to get their skulls out of their rears, come and find me. I will tell you this, if by the time is night they haven't corrected their way of thinking. I am going on solo, I can solo this place just fine. I just stuck around to help you, not that these jokers would appreciate it."

I began walking towards the exit of the plaza, till someone stood in front of me, the guy looked like a body builder. "You ain't going anywhere till our leader tells you that you can go, brat!" That is it, I had enough of them mouthing off.

I looked at him, "I think an attitude readjustment is just what the healer ordered. One serving of humble pie coming up." I immediately caught his weapon with my armored hand, and tossed it hard enough to bury half of it against a wall.

"You are within my strike field." I dropped into my basic stance and began to pound on the idiot to the tune I am working on the railroad. Nothing he tried to do would allow him to escape the beating I was giving him. The final strike became a throw and I slammed him against the rock floor of the plaza.

I looked at him and saw the look of fear on his face. "Now if you will excuse me, I need to go and plan my way towards the next town. If you don't come in the next three hours, I am leaving and you are on your own."

I began walking again towards the exit of the plaza and that is when I saw a scared looking girl with blue hair. I bent down and helped her get up, "Come on, no need to be afraid. Follow me I will teach you how to fight, since my friend's acquaintances are complete idiots."

As we walked towards the field I began teaching her the same way I taught Klein, and boy was I glad that I was teaching her. She was a quick study but at the beginning she made Klein look like a genius. As she figured what she needed to do we decided to hunt down a few boars for practice.

"Thank you for teaching me all this, my name is Sachi. I am sorry but I didn't ever bother asking you what was your name." I decided to tell her she could have know simply by looking at the party list in her hub.

"My name is Kirito, and don't worry Sachi. You are doing quite well. I was glad to help you." We decided to sit down and I looked at the sky, the sky was getting a bit dark. I guess the idiots didn't understand what favor I was doing for them.

"I guess it's just us Sachi, I guess Klein couldn't get his guild members to see reason." As soon as I finished saying that I heard someone yell for me to stop.

I did to see what Klein had to say, and I saw his friends running right behind him. "Sorry for what these guys said Kirito. These guys believed that you were also a newbie trying to put airs. Please Kirito you saw how our best fighter is, please teach them to survive this place."

I looked at Klein and smiled, "That was always my intention, until they started to mouth off. How am I going to teach a bunch of people who are unwilling to listen?"

The one I beat up before vowed to me and apologized, "Sorry, sir. I didn't realize who you were. Please teach us how to fight. We will not make it out of this death trap without known that."

I told them to follow me to the next field, it took us to the early hours of the next morning, but we managed to get everyone to learn how to attack, defend, evade and even us items during combat.

"That should get you guys started, nice to see some of you learned this quickly enough. Just keep practicing and don't go and fight monsters that are close to your level. You need at least a three level margin to ensure that you will be able to take the monster out, six if it's a large group."

I looked at Klein and told him with my hand to come closer, "Well I guess this is goodbye Klein. It seems that these guys don't want me in your guild after all. This place is uncomfortable enough without a group that doesn't think it needs me."

I began to walk away, and the guy with the mustache finally decided to say something. "We were wrong, we shouldn't have judged by mere appearances. I am sorry that I called you a brat, and I am grateful for all the things you taught me and my friends. Please Kirito stay with our group. Having an experienced fighter will make all of us a lot safer."

I looked at them and they nodded their heads as they heard what their friend said. "Very well, but if I tell you something you better listen. We will not always have a chance for me to explain my reasons, just know that when I say something it's for your benefit."

Klein hugged me again, and looked really happy that I said that. Really what was it with this guy giving me so many hugs. "Kirito, I will like to officially welcome you as the new drill instructor of our yet to be registered guild. Thank you for sticking around."


	3. Chapter 3

This is a Sword Art Online Fanfiction only.

If it took me a couple of hours to teach Klein how to fight, you would think that in a day or two I would get the rest of his friends to learn the basics, and you be wrong. It didn't take a day, a weekend, not even a week. It took an entire month, some of the members were stubborn that something was supposed to be one way, even if I proved them it wasn't.

Cause in point sword skills, some in fact thought that if they used the sword like a club and strive the enemy enough times the skills would automatically activate. The only thing this did was upset the monsters even more and made me rescue them time after time.

It was unbelievable that after one month there had been no progress in at least finding the floor boss room. It turns out that the locations were randomly generated, or so I believed. I checked where the floor boss had been during Beta and the dungeon or the boss was not there at all.

Since I could not do much, I decided to spend the second month intesifying their training, and they decided to switch from being stubborn to whining. What would they complain about you ask? About the weather, how much their muscles hurt, how hungry they were and last but not least the lack of women in our future guild. The one that complained about no females members was Klein.

That is another thing that happened, every time Klein met a beautiful woman be they a waitress to a healer he would immediately try to woe her, seduce her or ask her out on a date. I lost count of how many NPC women I apologized for what Klein said. As the second month came to an end I was happy Suguha was not in the game.

Suguha has a very strict code of conduct, and anytime someone tries to as some call it get too fresh with her, she gives them a beating that has them running away from her the next time they even look at her.

They might complain about my teaching methods but the group had improved quite a bit. As the third month came to an end I felt confident that they knew the basics. That is when we as a group began clearing monster fields.

I was upset as I heard them make fun of me for not using a weapon, but after I saved their lives a few times at least they stopped making fun of me. The entire group began to level at truly remarkable pace.

I used everything I knew about how to level efficiently and used it to help Klein and his group of friends. By the time people discovered the location of the first-floor boss, I was happy to know that each member of the guild Klein would one day register had reached at least level ten.

A lot of work, grinding and patience on my part sure made the difference. We all decided to go to the supposed strategy meeting since they finally seem to get serious about taking out the floor boss.

I sat right next to Klein and the others. Diabel must be a beta, somehow I got the feeling he knew more than he was telling the people of the meeting.

That is when a guy with the weirdest haircut jumped onto the platform. "Before we start this meeting I think there is something that needs to be said. I think there are a few people in this meeting that need to repent and pay for the abandoning us when this whole thing started."

"You know what I am talking about, the second Kayaba disappeared all the Betas took off, they took all the easy quests and the best monster fields. They didn't give a damn about us, so if they want to be in one of our teams. I say they need to apologize and give us everything they earned till now."

"They need to pay for being so heartless and abandoning us. If they don't do that, then I don't think we should trust these backstabbers."

I knew exactly what was going on, this idiot was hoping to guilt trip the Betas into giving him free stuff. This was a con and there was no question about it, he just wanted to rob the Betas blind.

"So let me get this straight, you want the Betas to give you everything they own as an apology for leaving you on your own? Are you that stupid? Every single one of you got a copy of the survival guide didn't you, and you got it for free. I happen to know that Betas help writes that thing."

I looked at him and began walking towards him, "This has nothing to do with Betas leaving you to figure out how to keep yourselves alive, this is just a scam by this idiot. He wants to try and get things and money for free. He doesn't want an apology, he wants a hand out."

I guess I struck a nerve because he tried to punch me, the second his fist came near me I grabbed his arm and with a kick to his leg and a sharp movement I sent the idiot hard against the floor. "You think I survived this long without knowing how to defend myself. Let's face it punks, the Betas have no responsibly to ensure you survive. They helped make that guide help you and this is how you thank them."

"With the exception of a few people, we are all complete strangers to each other. This is not a game, this is a fight to survive and most would do anything they think they need to survive. Well, Diabel how are we organizing the groups to fight the boss?"

He nodded his head and looked relieved that we could get back at what was really important.

"As he said, this is the newest edition of the guide book. The first-floor boss is called Illfang the Kobold Lord, and he is guarded by his kobold sentinels. He is right, we need to organize groups so that we can take care of the first-floor boss, but I need to remind you we will have ninety-nine more bosses to deal with, this place has one hundred floors."

He looked at me and I knew what he was going to ask just from the way he looked at me. His posture spoke loudly even before he spoke the words. "So who will you join?" I told him without any hesitation that I would join my guild mates, and we would fight as we always did as one.

That is when Klein and the others stood up cheering, " **All for one,** " I heard Klein say in front of the others and I felt like saying my answer and so did the others, " **And one for all!** "

"We may not be registered but we members of the Fuurinkazen Guild stand by each other no matter what! You boys argue all you want, me and my right hand Kirito will be on our way. If you don't get your act together we might even beat the boss before you get there."

I walked towards the others and I saw their smiling faces, we all walked out of the meeting and began to walk towards the boss room. "Kirito do you think our guys are ready to beat this thing? Or did I bite more than I can chew?"

I continued walking, "No problem Klein, we will get it done, and then those jokers will know how serious we are. Now stop worrying and let us go and kill this floor boss. This will be the first major enemy our guild polishes off, let's make our mark on this castle and in the minds of those that ever doubted our resolve."

For some odd reason, I was actually looking forward to this, and I didn't know why. I saw the door to the boss room and I couldn't believe this place was so hard to find. The door was a dead giveaway, the thing was black and had an impression of a skull from a giant pull on it.

I had enough waiting and decided to kick in the door. The door opened as I was ready to kick it. Inside the lighting was done with torches that lit up the second the door opened. Illfang was huge and had four health bars, the sentinels looked like they were as hungry for a good fight as I was.

I swear I heard that boss laughing as I looked at him, "Well thank you so much for the invitation, hey Illfang let us have a good old time shall we? Hope you got your dancing shoes on, cause the fun is getting started now."

The others were busy taking care of the sentinels and I decided to run straight for the boss myself. The giant monster made the first mistake and tried to slash me with his giant ax. I was more than ready for it, I caught it between my hands and with a flip of my wrists I took the ax from him.

I turned around and slashed him across the stomach and then from the top of his head until the ax hit the floor making a cross shaped scar across his body. That took care of one of the health bars and the ax broke into a thousand pieces.

The boss didn't like where this was going or so I came to understand and he tried to use another ax. I kept taking them from him and using them on him. By the time the others arrived we had taken out two of the health bars and he threw away his shield. He should know better than use a weapon against me, but he picked a kodachi of all things to use against me.

I used the same tactic as I did before but this time, he didn't have enough time to dodge. He also didn't have the benefit of having a shield either. As the boss was with the final health bar one of the torches fell down and hit the blade I took from him. The thing had been covered in a thick gunk made up of the fat and blood from the boss.

The blade burst into flames and seeing as I had little use for this blade. I threw it as hard as I could nailing him to a pillar, and as he tried to pull himself free I rushed and with a serious of punches I saw the final health bar deplete and the boss break up into a thousand pieces.

"There is no way a group of players can beat the entire boss and his subordinates by themselves, there just no way. They must be cheaters all of them, it's the only way they could beat the boss room before we got here."

A young woman wearing a hood stood up and began glaring at the idiot I came to know as Kibou. "If we had trained, gotten ready, made all the necessary preparations we too could have done the same. Don't you blame them for doing something you were too lazy to do yourself."

I was not about to let someone insult someone else for telling the truth, as Kibou was ready to give more excuses I decided to look at him. "Actually, I knew how this boss fought because I been to higher floors, and fought a ton of monsters with much tougher sword skills. I could not beat it alone, so I joined a guild that had not registered."

I tried had to give an evil sneer before I continued, "And that is not the only thing I know. I know a lot more than even the info brokers do. I will use it to the benefit of my guild, my friends and myself. You don't like it, see if I care. You can go right back to the city of beginnings and sit down with your thumbs up your asses for all I care."

"Nobody is going to get us out of this death game, we have to work hard and train hard to get out of it. I am no charity, I worked hard to learn what I learned so you want to know what I know pay me. But I am not cheap, and I don't do charity."

Kibou finally found his voice and glared at me as he walked towards me, "You are even worse than a cheater, you are a Beta and a cheater. You are a lousy Beater that is what you are."

Klein walked over to the young girl and invited her to our party, she accepted rather quickly. He then walked right next to me and smiled, "You are quite the mercenary and I like that, very realistic way to look at the world young man. He is a Beater, well I guess that makes us all Beaters too. To tell you the truth, I sort of like it."

We began to walk away from the group and in the end Diabel the guy who organized the first meeting and the hooded girl I later came to know as Asuna joined up with us. The guild registration quest was on the third floor. We still had another floor to fight but somehow when we touched the portal to open it for the others, our guild name which was not even registered got the credit for beating the first-floor boss.

"Hey Klein, do you want the bonus I got for beating the boss. I sure as hell don't have a use for it." I moved my inventory and decided to show it to him, it was a katana called Kobold's rage. I had my martial arts and that is all I would ever need.

"You know Kirito I will accept that, but in exchange let me buy you some better armor. Your gauntlets broke apart in that last fight. Come on guys, let's see what awaits us in the second floor. I know for at least two people they have to go through our boot camp with the DI that makes monsters cry for their mama."


	4. Chapter 4

This is a Sword Art Online Fanfiction only.

Thanks to our established training regiment we manage to get our two newest members up to par rather quickly, had it not been for Diabel's constant talk about Chivalry. I could have gotten them up to par sooner, but the guy refused to fight in any way that would seem unfair.

"I don't know how many times I have told you Diabel. There is no such a thing as a cheap shot here, you find a weakness and you take advantage. This fight is a fight for our survival, and make no mistake by the time we escape this place, we will have some blood on our hands."

Asuna looked at me as I continued to instruct Diabel in a better way to use his shield, "Kirito you don't think we can escape this death game without avoiding killing other players?" I looked at her and couldn't help shaking my head at her comment.

"Asuna I know of at least one group that is made up of people who don't only enjoy, but in fact, love to kill players, they are called Laughing Coffin. During the Beta, they were one of the most feared guilds that ever existed. Every member is a cold-blooded killer."

I took off my gauntlet and showed them on my wrist a guild symbol. "This symbol on my wrist is a tattoo, every member has it somewhere on their bodies. Remember it well, for if you see a person with this tattoo you should know that if he fights you, he will kill you and enjoy every second while he does it."

As I put my gauntlet back on I heard her laugh, "If every member was a psychopathic killer, then pray tell Instructor Kirito, why are you helping us get stronger? You were a member of Laughing Coffin once, and you just said that every member loves to murder."

I decided to let loose and let go of the killer intent I was holding back, the temperature around we dropped and the water vapors around us slowly became snow. "Every member enjoys killing Asuna, I am no exception, the only difference is that killing players is like picking on a kid in a schoolyard, can you blame me if I want my prey to be a little bit of a challenge?"

As we got done for today we returned to the hotel, and sure enough, we got a heroes' return home welcome from the NPCs. I honestly don't know why they are so grateful for, it was a simple matter of killing the monsters that were ruining their fields. The monsters weren't even that much of a challenge compared to the last floor boss.

Our guild registration hit what I would call an unfortunate snag, the difference between fees between the Beta and the current price was significantly higher than what I remember. How much higher do you ask? How do an extra three zeroes grab you?

It sure didn't help matters when Klein decided to buy armor with the same color scheme for the entire guild. I kept telling him it is cheaper to make our own, or higher a blacksmith to help me out with the workload. Did he listen to me? Why I should think not, he considered it a perfect opportunity to impress Asuna.

The news that I was a former Laughing Coffins member spread like wildfire, this had a much anticipated, and much vocal response from other players. The thing was it was not as negative as I would have expected. They called Klein and his guild saviors of the common man if they managed to reform an evil person like me.

If this hand been a game like it was back on my Beta days I would just flat out love to play the malicious villain and kill the entire bunch of loud mouths, the only thing that stopped me was when I kept picturing the sad faces of their grieving parents, husbands, lovers. I mean what kind of a villain am I if the idea of making a snot nosed brat cry keeps me from killing even orange players.

"Don't worry about it Kirito, we both know you don't kill for the jollies like they do. Why do you think the cost of registering a guild is so much higher?" I could think of several reasons, NPC got greedy, supply and demand and even possible liability that the guild office might be preparing for.

In the end, I only could think one that did ring as a potential reason, "It's Kayaba, he doesn't want to make it easy to form a guild and thus he can slow our progress to the higher floors. Make no mistake once we get up there we will have a fight like nothing we ever even imagined because the fight between us and Kayaba at least one side will die."

I walked towards my room and couldn't help but to feel that with every day that passed my feelings became more and more distant, the more I fought against the monsters of the castle the less I was able to feel, it was almost like the excitement of battle was slowly leaving me.

I used to love fighting against hordes of monsters back in the Beta, but now almost all my fights end so quickly it barely seems like a fight anymore. My life had become a stable routine, one that in the past year I had gotten down to almost to the point that I don't even think about it anymore.

I get up early and do my stretches and morning jog. In the afternoon I go into a dungeon with the two I am training till they gain a few levels, at the evening I go out and hunt myself enough so that I can make enough money to pay for a meal, take a bath, go to sleep and the next day the routine starts all over again.

Asuna was able to break through the entire schedule of training and she was able to in a matter of days learn what she needed to do. The real difficult guy to train was Diabel. I swear if I don't get this guy to drop his ridiculous ideas of being a knight, he will end up being a corpse.

I lost count how many times I ended up saving his life just because he didn't believe anyone would use an underhanded tactic in battle. Today was no exception, we were surrounded by a pack of hellhounds and what did my trainee decide to do? He decided that he would challenge the leader of the pack to a one on one battle.

Even I know that these hellhounds don't have a need or desire to comply with the terms of his challenge. In the end, he rushed in trying to fight one of the most massive hellhounds I ever was sawed, the thing had at least five health bars that how big this thing was. Just as he was able to evade one of his attacks, five other smaller hellhounds leaped from the shadows thinking he would be easy prey.

I didn't have much time to think about it, I jumped in and pushed him aside. With a single punch to the jaw to one of the hellhounds, I tore its jaw clean off. Using nothing by my momentum and the broken jaw I killed three other of the hellhound pack.

"I keep telling you that fairness in combat does not exist here Diabel. You need to wake up and get a dose of reality here. We are fighting for our very lives, this is do or die and nothing like a code of Chivalry or being fair comes into play. You might want to do the honorable thing, but believe me, they don't mind doing what is needed to win."

I looked at the shocked look on their faces, "This is not a game people, this is life. You need to open your ears and for once listen to me. Your Health Points reach zero and that is it. Your entire existence went in the blink of an eye, now think about your grieving families. You think I am ruthless, well hate to tell you that I am not the only one that is this way, these monsters aren't going to show you any mercy."

Asuna looked at me and walked over to touch my hand that had been holding the broken jaw of that hound. "Kirito then what are we supposed to do? We all been living a pretty safe and peaceful life till we got caught in this death trap." I looked at them and I couldn't help but laugh.

As she let go of my hand I looked at them. "I am not letting this place get the better of me, you want to know what we are supposed to do? The answer is simple we watch out for each other, we never let our guard down thinking this place is just for fun, and we train like there is no tomorrow, cause if we fail then we will not see tomorrow."

We managed to clear a few fields of monsters and I have to admit that as they got used to it, we made good progress. They each managed to raise their levels quite a bit, and they know by now how to properly train.

This group is my responsibility in our guild, and I will make sure everyone in the guild makes back home alive, at least they have a family to go back to. I, on the other hand, don't really have anything to lose, do I? There is an old saying that there is nothing as terrifying as fighting a person who has nothing left to lose.

That might have been true before, but right now, I do have something I could lose, something I am willing to die to defend, and that is all my precious friends in my guild. In the real world, I escaped into my games since I always felt alone, who knew that it would take this kind of place for me to find a place where I didn't feel alone anymore.

Maybe one day when the other members acquire special skills I will finally be able to tell them of mine. Who knew that doing that with the broken jaw of a monster would actually cause me to notice a skill that had been hidden in my own skill list.

When we got back to the guild and Klein was done telling them what a wonderful job they did in their training, I decided to take a small nap. That is what I told them, in reality, I wanted to check what it says about this new skill that just popped out of nowhere on my skill list.

"I see so this is the reason why I couldn't use weapons. I guess this means the reason I can't use weapons because I am not limited to use weapons like the others are. I still consider the idea behind this skill a total ripoff. What kind of a person basically steals the idea of a skill from other games and anime shows? The name is so corny too that I am liable to keep it a secret."

As I walked towards a monster field I decided to go there by myself, why would I go to a monster-filled plot of land by myself you ask? Why the only reason that didn't make me look like an absolute nutcase, I had a lot of stress and anger to get rid off and nothing helps me feel better than beating monsters to pieces.

As I kept beating monsters and I finally was able to calm down I began walking back when I felt a large monster appearing behind me. "So the rumor about this place having a hidden boss were true, darn it, I guess I will have to thank her next time I see her. So let's see what the hidden monster looks like?"

I turned around and it was not exactly what I thought would be, I thought it would be a big hideous monster that would have to cause others nightmares for the rest of their lives. Argo told me that if a person cleared all the monsters on this field a rather tough hidden boss would appear.

Well in truth the hidden boss did appear, it's just that the boss didn't look at all intimating as I hoped, 'Hidden king of the floor my ass, fluffy is more like it.' The hidden boss looked like a three-ton hamster, I kid you not the thing looked like an overgrown, fat hamster. Suddenly I had the feeling that fighting this thing would be so boring that I decided to ignore it and go back to my room.

"To scare are you to face the King of this floor you are? Come and fight me, we shall fight to the death as nature intended." I walked over to it and I was really getting upset at having this furball try and intimidate me. I placed my hands together and with one hand I picked him up and held him up in the air with one hand.

"Do you really want to die that badly? Well, I was being kind to you and letting you live, but if you rather die, then, by all means, let me grant you your wish." As I was about to throw it up in the air I felt the furball quivering in fear.

"So you don't want to die then, fine I guess I can be merciful this one time. You better hide in a different field or they will try and find you again. Hell, why don't you hide in the basement of my old house on floor twenty-five."

He looked at me and began to actually cry, "I thank you for this show of kindness I do, I shall once day repay you for such generous offer I shall. You may not realize it now but a friend like I, you never had, and benefit from my friendship you shall."


End file.
